Thank you, you little beauties! Your reviews make my day! Sorry for the incredibly late update, but I hadn't been feeling too well in the last few weeks, and apparently I wasn't allowed to use my computer in the hospital… weird people.
Anyway, thank you Knockoutroundabout for your incredibly lengthy, kind review. I'll take what you said into consideration. As always, a little shout-out DiamondForest, my most faithful reviewer, and KasonSama for your help. And everybody else who reviewed too!
Enjoy the chapter!
Both teams arrived in Konoha in less than a week, but Team 13 was told to hand in their written and oral report a week after the mission. When they were finally summoned to the office and had waited for the 'come in' for a good half an hour, they were admitted to see the Hokage.
As usual, Sakura stood in the middle of her two teammates, as it was her giving the oral report. What surprised the teens by her side was the fact that she seemed hesitant, almost nervous about the ordeal, which was strange considering that they'd done it at least a hundred times already.
That suspicion was further proven when she swallowed audibly and asked; "Where should I start, Hokage-sama?"
Which was around the time when alarm bells started ringing in Kaoru's mind for Sakura was never confused, never at a loss for words and definitely never hesitated.
"From the beginning would be wonderful." The Sandaime replied, smiling comfortingly although visibly surprised by the question.
"I… it was a very- um, I mean, the mission, it affected me emotionally… and I'm not sure how to say this, but…" now even Akane was gaping at the stuttering rosette.
Sarutobi heard a scoff from behind. "A good shinobi never lets their emotions take hold of them." Danzo's gravelly voice echoed in the small office. The rosette glanced at the man over Hiruzen's shoulder, her eyes widened and her mouth twitched downward while her gaze turned icy.
"Hai, forgive me, Hokage-sama." Her tone was back to the professional lilt with no hint of hesitation. And the Hokage watched as her shoulders squared, her face cleared of all doubt and anxiety, the calm, collected mask of polite detachment replacing it instead. She stopped rubbing her hands and let them drop by her sides. Finally, the rosette looked like the perfect, mature shinobi the Hokage had grown accustomed to seeing around his office.
"As I was saying," and she proceeded to deliver the perfect mission report, yet that one, single slip of composure would never be forgotten by Sarutobi, for it proved that even the best had their weaknesses. He just wandered what did it for the rosette.
Once away from the stifling office, Kaoru and Akane planned to take Sakura out for dinner, seeing as they had yet another A-Rank mission completed to the utmost perfection. Yet the rosette merely brushed past them with an "I'm going to train. Alone. I'll see you soon." as her only explanation. Still, they decided to just go themselves, and were currently walking side-by-side to the Akimichi Restaurant, enjoying the unusual, yet comfortable silence that settled around them.
"Hey, Kao-chan…?" Akane broke the spell.
"Hm?"
"Did you see, back in the office, how when that old man spoke she immediately calmed down? What's up with that? And why did she storm off like that? We should celebrate – we've once again proved that we're the undisputed Kings and Queens of all genin!" he chuckled.
Kaoru took a few seconds to collect his thoughts before he replied. "She's angry she lost her composure, obviously." At the redhead's blank look, he sighed. "Like you said, Sakura… has changed. Or rather, reverted back to how she was when we first met her, when emotion was a weakness. Why? I have no idea. But all I know is that I don't like it, not one bit. And why did she run off? She told you – to train." The brunette explained. Akane thought over his friend's words, a serious look on his face. "Hey, don't think so much – your head might implode!"
"Funny, Kaoru-chan." Akane replied sarcastically. "But really, I just don't get why she has this need to keep training! It's like, she knows she's way better than everybody, but she's still killing herself with training every single day! Why does she do that?"
The brunette wondered whether to let his teammate on to his little secret, but since Akane sounded genuinely worried, he did. "Sakura talks in her sleep," he began, but noticed the redhead gazing at him weirdly, which confused him. "What?"
"Kaoru-chan… How do you know that?" Akane asked suspiciously.
Kaoru blushed when he caught on to what his friend was insinuating. "That's not what I meant, you idiot!" he shook his head and shivered in trepidation. "You sleep like a brick so you don't even notice it when we share a tent, but I can't sleep most of the time, so I know. Overall, what I deduced was that Sakura has a huge inferiority complex. She doesn't want to be a burden, or a disappointment, so she tries to be the best she can, usually forgetting her own well-being."
"That explains why she trains, but…" Akane thought out loud. "Why is she so worried? Her taijutsu alone is a force to be reckoned with!"
"Yes and no." Kaoru replied. "Although there is always the element of surprise, since her style doesn't seem to exist, seeing as it's not written in any of the scrolls in the library, even the restricted ones, the moves themselves have huge loopholes, which, if one knows how to use, can become massive faults." Akane looked at him in curiosity so he elaborated. "When we first met, I was a little doubtful about her style. Firstly, considering her build, no blow she delivers can be very powerful. Then I realised she reinforced it with chakra. While that was rather impressive, as it showed she had both, good control and timing, what I was worried about was how long she could last like that. Chakra reserves develop with age. Even now, her reserves cannot be larger than perhaps half, maybe three-quarters of yours." At the redhead's disbelieving look, he sighed. "It's her control that makes it seem like her reserves are the size of a Jinchuuriki's. I told you that before, idiot." The brunette took a deep breath before he continued. "So although the style was not perfect, she compensated for what she didn't yet realise were problems by using chakra.But I couldn't just walk up to her and say that. I was too awed by how she literally surpassed all of my expectations."
Akane frowned. So what's the big deal? He wondered.
As if reading his mind, Kaoru continued. "The problem is that she seemed to have realised that a few months ago. Noticed all the little faults, even the ones I didn't think of. So now she's slaving to the point of exhaustion to get rid of them. You saw the chakra wall she used to separate us during the mission; I didn't think much of it at first, but then I realised: chakra is usually invisible. The wall was, well, a wall. It was solid, and we could see it. Now that I think about it, it was light blue. Chakra only becomes visible if an immense amount of it is concentrated at once." He left the sentence hanging for Akane's interpretation.
"So… what you're saying is that even without having a lot of chakra, Sakura managed to use so much it coloured and became solid…right?"
"She solidified it somehow, I don't know how, but it was her will. And don't forget, she also fought with the Uchiha immediately afterward." Kaoru added, waiting for the redhead to gather his thoughts.
"There's something she isn't telling us, isn't there?" Akane asked, but it was more like a statement anyway, and Kaoru felt proud – the redhead, even with a pea-sized brain, still managed to come to a decent conclusion.
"That's what I think. But I'm certain we'll find out what it is soon." When Akane shot him a how do you know? look, Kaoru shrugged. "Gut feeling."
Though the rosette felt slightly guilty for pushing away her teammates. But Kaoru was right. She had realised the faults of her techniques, and only just fully grasped the disadvantage her inability to use an elemental jutsu put her at. She was a close range fighter through and through – taijutsu as her main offensive power, then genjutsu if the opponent was stronger, or preferred long-distance jutsu. But there was one thing she lacked – a reliable, fool-proof defense. Neji's Byakugan allowed him to see 360˚ save for one miniscule blind-spot, but Sakura had no such bloodline. If over-powered or outnumbered, she was left defenseless. The rosette hated having a weakness, especially one so obvious and dangerous.
Therefore, for the last three months, she'd been working on the perfect defense which would suit her, and only her. A great deal of planning, research and realistic balancing of odds went into this 'project' of hers, but she was so close to the end she could literally smell it.
She used something Neji had told her about when they first became friends as inspiration – the Hyuuga's secret Revolving Heaven technique. Sakura knew she could do it; release chakra from all points on her body, but what she needed was something that wouldn't reduce her visibility which she could keep up, perhaps even move with.
So, out in her garden, close to the small forest she'd dubbed as her training grounds, she finally tried out the actual jutsu, all the theory practically engraved into her memory. It was time to see if it would work. Pushing her anxiety into the deepest corners of her mind, Sakura took a deep breath and concentrated.
When she felt relaxed, she slowly let her chakra leek out of her body, still keeping a tight rein on it. She was feeling weary from trying to hold the chakra steady, and she'd only been keeping it up for a few seconds. Afraid to waste too much chakra, she quickly progressed to the second stage – in one quick, smooth movement, she straightened her arms and moved her hands to her sides, while simultaneously solidifying the chakra bubble that surrounded her. Now came the hard part – in order to keep the chakra flowing, at least two parts of the bubble needed to be like normal chakra; fluid-like. It required an immense amount of concentration and careful planning, but in the end, Sakura managed to get the effect she wanted – the part of the bubble in contact with the palm of her hand wasn't solid, and allowed her to keep a steady flow of chakra through the rest of the bubble.
Her arms were starting to ache, but Sakura ignored the pain. She admired the shield of solid chakra around her.
Now, to move…
She took a tentative step forward, but immediately jerked back – the bubble wouldn't budge. The rosette frowned and wondered if she'd made any mistakes. Nothing came to mind. She gazed intently at the bubble, or rather dome, as the bottom part disappeared under ground, willing it to just shout the answer at her.
Suddenly, it hit her. The bottom part disappeared underground. Of course. The bubble was solid. She couldn't move it unless she wanted to rip of the grass and tear through the ground.
Sakura released the chakra and thought of a solution. I can't have it go into the ground, so as long as I don't release chakra from my feet, it shouldn't go in.
With that in mind, the rosette tried again, drawing chakra from the very bottom of her coils, this time making sure it didn't go lower than her ankles. She felt exhaustion taking over, but she was determined to finish this. With a dome-like structure surrounding her, she once again took a careful step forward.
Nothing jerked her back.
Sakura allowed herself a smile, but it soon morphed into a happy, victorious laugh, and try as she might, she couldn't stop it. She laughed and laughed, relieved, pleased, and exhausted at the same time. When she finally stopped, she felt her chakra flicker, and the dome disappeared, then came back, but much weaker and thinner than before. Sakura released a huge yawn, her hands shaking and arms dropping as darkness took over her vision, and her knees buckled under her.
Last thing she remembered was her cheek hitting the grass before everything went black.
I woke up to the sound of something beeping to my right. I tried opening my eyes but immediately shut them as blinding light assaulted my senses. I took a deep breath but regretted it as my chest suddenly contracted and I coughed out warm liquid and felt it dribble down my chin. Wincing, I slowly pried my eyes open and let them adjust to the ridiculously bright light.
Too white walls.
Too hard bed.
Too stifling atmosphere.
Too annoying beeping of a heart monitor.
Hospital.
That was the one word which my hazy mind could come up with, and I didn't like it one bit. I gathered my courage and steeled myself for the pain, and sat up. Or rather, attempted to sit up, as, almost immediately after I managed to push my torso off the mattress, I felt hands settle on my shoulders and push me back down.
"I don't think so." A stern voice accompanied the gesture. I searched my tired brain for a reason which would explain why it seemed so familiar.
Ah. It's Kaoru.
I looked up and indeed; I was met with the same long hair, warm brown eyes and genuinely concerned expression I was so used to. The differences were the foreign black bags under his eyes and the fact that his long hair seemed even longer still.
"You gave us quite a scare, Sakura-chan." Another hoarse voice cut through the silence left after Kaoru's words. Akane appeared in my line of vision, his hair also longer and messier; with black bags that stood out against his paler-than-usual skin.
"What happened?" I croaked out.
Kaoru sighed and ran a hand down his face. "You passed out, that's what." He stated bluntly, a hint of anger colouring his words.
I frowned. "What do you mean?" wordlessly, and, quite harshly too, the brunette grabbed the clipboard at the foot of the bed and tossed it to me. My eyes were still blurry so I couldn't read it too well, but what I saw made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Kaoru seemed to notice my shock. "Malnourished. Exhausted. Injured. And suffering from mild hypothermia." He said, eyes boring into mine with a frightening intensity. "That's how we found you two weeks ago. Then, when we brought you to the hospital, they added chakra exhaustion to the list." Unable to look the brunette in the eye, I averted my gaze, suddenly finding the wall very interesting.
I squeaked when two fingers roughly grasped my chin and turned my face back to him. "How do you explain that?"
I tried to remember what I was doing before my world went black. "I was training." I said blankly. "And wait, two weeks? I'd been unconscious for two weeks?"
Seeing the horrified look on my face, Akane subtly edged himself between Kaoru and I. "Sakura-chan… you cannot overlook your own well-being for the sake of training." He tried explaining gently.
"…I was trying out something new. And anyway, success is achieved by small things, and repeating them, day in, day out." I defended.
"But that does not mean forgetting to fulfill the most important factors we need to survive. Regardless of your abilities, you're still human, Sakura. I warned you not to act so irresponsible before, and you know that I do not appreciate being ignored."
Everyone turned their heads towards the new voice, and a small smile bloomed on my face when I noticed Neji standing in the doorway; his face a mask of detachment and disapproval, but I could still detect the hint of worry and relief beneath his façade. I felt almost guilty.
"Neji…" I sighed, torn between thankful and annoyed. "What are you-?"
"I came merely to make sure you're alive - Uncle's nagging was becoming quite annoying." He merely shrugged and turned on his heel, but stopped before leaving. "And you might want to know that there are Chunin Exams taking place next week. I'll be expecting you there." With that announcement, he left.
"Hyuuga!" Kaoru's irritated yell followed him, but Neji paid it no heed. Akane was glancing nervously between the taller brunette, the door, and me, clearly unsure of what to or say. Halfway between amused and furious, I turned to Kaoru.
"Is there something you're not telling me, Kaoru-kun?" I asked sweetly, startling the brunette with the honorific. "Perhaps something about the Chunin Exams?"
He sighed and pulled on his hair in frustration, and I heard him mumble something about a 'royal pain-in-the-ass bloody irritating Hyuuga', but he chucked me the application form nevertheless.
I smirked victoriously.
I was soon released from the hospital under the threat of the medics notifying the Hokage and making him assign us only D-Ranks if something like that happened again. The rest of the week passed by smoothly and in no time I found myself before the oh-so-familiar doors of the Academy, gazing up at the building with a hint of a smile playing on my lips.
"Reminiscing?" a teasing voice cut through my thoughts and I shot an annoyed look at Kaoru as he approached with the redhead by his side.
"You wish." I deadpanned.
Akane was literally bouncing with excitement, trying to free himself from the strong hand on his head Kaoru was restraining him with, a crazy, excited grin on his face.
"It's the Chunin Exams! Finally! Let's take a minute and thank the old man for letting us take it even without our sensei!" he cheered.
Kaoru smacked the redhead around his head. "We will do no such thing." The brunette replied calmly.
"Aw, you're no fun, Kaoru-chan!" he pouted. "How about you, Sakura-chan?"
I pretend to think about his question. "Though I'm thankful that he let us participate… still no."
Akane sulked while Kaoru smirked and ruffled his hair. "Fine, fine. We're excited. Happy?"
Immediately, the redhead brightened and bounded forward, drawing curious or annoyed glances from the other genin. Kaoru and I sighed simultaneously and followed the hyper teen, exchanging exasperated but amused glances along the way.
When we entered, my senses tingled with the tell-tale sign that there was something I should know about. Just what was it?
"Please tell me you can sense that too." Kaoru muttered to the two of us.
"I can definitely sense something, Kaoru-chan, I just can't place my finger on it." Akane replied, and I nodded in agreement with his words.
"It's a genjutsu." The brunette explained. "But it's incredibly weak. We can easily break it if we have to."
I nodded again and motioned to the stairs. "Shall we?"
We climbed the stairs slowly, taking our time seeing as we were quite early, and by the second floor I could feel the literal slap of the genjutsu hit me. It was so obvious, whoever cast it must not have cared that it was so obvious. Or, perhaps they wanted it to be obvious.
The three of us walked through the corridor, casually walking past the commotion taking place by the fake room 301, until an oh-so-familiar voice interrupted us.
"So, you decided to actually show up." A cool voice called from behind us. I turned around, smirking.
"I couldn't let you down, Neji-chan, not after you took the initiative to come to the hospital and tell me about the exams." I responded seriously.
He scoffed, but I could see he was amused. "It wouldn't have been any fun if I became chunin and you didn't simply because you didn't attend the exams."
I gawked openly, unable to believe that those same words were coming from my Neji. The cold, jackass, arrogant Neji I was used to. "That's… strangely considerate of you, Neji-chan. Regardless, I guess I'll see you in the finals, ne?" I teased, a happy grin on my face as I turned on my heel and started walking away, but his voice stopped me.
"Where are you going?" he called out.
I pondered telling him about the genjutsu, but decided against it. I could already sense the Uchiha's chakra and had no doubt the brat would not waste such a perfect opportunity to gloat and show off.
"You'll figure it out soon enough."
And we walked off, to the real room 301.
We stepped through the door after some random chunin congratulated us for getting through the genjutsu. I felt a sudden pang of pain when I realised that it was normally the team's sensei that congratulated them and sent them off.
Izaya-sensei…
Just as we walked into the room, I could feel Akane stop in shock, so I poked him lightly in the back, urging him forward. This was not the time to show shock or surprise.
We sat by the window, not too keen to be directly in the way of the incoming genin and not too interested in the commotion taking place in the middle. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I let my eyes wonder over the faces of the gathered genin in boredom. Some were adults, some teens, most, if not all, older than me. I was about to lose interest and pondered the idea of asking Akane for some sort of game he undoubtedly had with him, when I felt it.
The ominous, dark, creepy aura that felt like a slap to the face the moment my eyes connected with the pale jade pools highlighted by the black rings of insomnia. Such lonely eyes… yet so frightening at the same time. They screamed of pain and suffering, yet of a sadistic, monstrous lust for blood too. It was like seeing two different personalities, but those who didn't know better saw only the dark, fearsome side. I could see in my peripheral vision how the genin around him seemed to shrink away.
I didn't dare break the eye-contact.
Because, regardless of the shivers running up and down my spine, I could relate to those empty jaded eyes. Even though they made the redhead look like he wanted to destroy me I could not help but smile at the fact that there was somebody like me; with the same eyes.
Our connection was broken by the examiner's sudden appearance. I almost gaped.
God, Kami-sama, whoever you are, please say that this is not Morino Ibiki.
But it was. And he was just as creepy and frightening as I remembered him. I shivered at the memory of one of our missions, where we ended up forcing the captured missing-nin into the T&I department, and bore witness to the various torture methods he used to wring information out of the ninja. I had seen many cruel, gory things in my life, witnessed more deaths than healthy, yet seeing Ibiki render a man defenceless, vulnerable, and all but insane with pain had given me nightmares for a few days.
I never wanted to get on the man's bad side.
After the introduction, we were told that this would be the written examination. Akane sat a few seats in front of me, and I saw him hang his head dejectedly, sighing at his misfortune. I chuckled quietly.
The more Ibiki explained about the test the more I felt like something was weird about it. There were just… too many rules. Or rather, they were very… contradictory. There was the clear message of: don't cheat or else, yet at the same time, if caught cheating, they only took off two points...
Unwilling to pursue the matter any longer, I dismissed the thought and concentrated on the paper before me.
My eye twitched. And how exactly do they expect us to answer this? These questions are out of this world!
There was very little chance that anybody could answer these questions without making any mistakes – they were too tricky, with too many possible answers. I sighed, gripped my pencil with newfound determination and began writing.
About half an hour later, I felt a familiar, gentle tugging on my consciousness, and when I subtly glanced back I saw Kaoru give me a meaningful look. I turned back to my desk, rested my head on my folded arms, closed my eyes and succumbed to the genjutsu.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded… by nothing. It was black all around, neither solid, nor liquid. Something almost like… clouds. It soon changed colour to a lighter shade, a dark, stormy purple.
"Well, that's unexpected." I turned abruptly, almost giving myself whiplash from the sudden movement, and saw Akane casually strolling in my direction, hands in his pockets, eyes scanning over our surroundings with almost scientific curiosity. "Kao-chan really outdid himself this time."
"What is this genjutsu?" I asked carefully.
"It's something I created as a means of communication when on missions or in pressing situations. If we were ever taken captive, or couldn't talk, this here is where we'll go." Kaoru's voice rang out before the redhead could answer.
"And where exactly is here?" I pressed.
"It's my mind." Kaoru stated simply. Just as he said that, the surroundings changed from the purple gas to what seemed like a beautiful clearing in a forest, with blossoming flowers, and dew glistening on the grass. It seemed so peaceful, serene and so… Kaoru-like.
"No wonder it's so girly." Akane snickered, but quietened when I sent him a glower.
"So, what're we were for?" I asked quietly.
"Well, in all honesty, doesn't the test seem a bit fishy to you?" he said, sending me and Akane a meaningful look. I nodded in agreement, but the redhead seemed curious.
"Fishy? They're just pissy about cheating. There's nothing else to it, Kaoru-chan."
"But they're stressing the rules of what happens when you cheat more than anything else! There's something off about that, you've got to admit." The brunette defended.
"Reverse psychology." I muttered off-handedly, drawing both boys' eyes to me. I shrugged. "That's it, isn't it?"
Kaoru smirked in realization. "Of course. The more you tell somebody not to do something, the more they'll want to do it."
"That, and weeding out any participants who can't do it subtly and get caught, or cave under pressure." I added thoughtfully.
"So the whole test is just a load of bullshit?" Akane asked, shaking with laughter. "Thank God! I have no clue what these bloody questions want me to do!"
I chuckled, but out of the corner of my eyes I noticed that Kaoru suddenly stilled.
"Well isn't this convenient." A voice rang out, and I froze when I realised it didn't belong to any of us. "Discussing the test, in the middle of said test. Ah, I'll happily inform Morino-san that the whole team deserves to be disqualified." The chunin who materialized out of nowhere clucked his tongue, looking around with interest. "So intricately made… such precision. This is a good genjutsu, but you're forgetting your place, using that in the middle of the exam."
Kaoru snorted, and smirked, which must have been the most evil expression I'd ever seen on his face.
"And you forgot one very important thing when you invaded this very genjutsu." He grinned at the chuunin as the flowers and grass around him turned into vines and wrapped tightly around the man, immobilizing him. "This is my mind." He began as the illusion started melting away, and I watched as everything started to disappear, leaving only Kaoru and the frightened chunin in the middle.
"I make the rules here!"
I snapped back to reality, gasping for breath before I stilled and relaxed. Only five minutes left till the 10th question would be announced. Suddenly, a scream cut through the air, and one of the chunin by my side thrashed madly, before falling off his chair. I smirked when I noticed it was the same chunin who tried to snitch on us. He was quickly carried away towards the infirmary, but as I cast a glance at Kaoru, I couldn't help but snort at the smug, self-satisfied look on the brunette's face.
I wondered what he'd shown the poor chunin.
"To those of you left, I have some good news for you." Ibiki's voice rang through the room, the 78 genin left snapping to attention.
"You all passed the first stage of the exams."
And it's done! Next chapter will be Anko and the dreaded Forest of Death! Hope you all enjoyed this, and see you soon!
Review please!